Blood
by Astrea Xenophon
Summary: Dave Strider's first, cataclysmic, session of Sburb... Slightly AU, One shot.


Water Angel's 100 THEME CHALLENGE

11 – BLOOD

You, Dave Strider, have come from a line very far from the main time line and no-one, other than you, really knows the lengths you went to.

REWIND-

The first session you took part in was truly cataclysmic.

Everyone was ecstatic about the new game. Who chose you, you never really figured out but that was beside the point. The wait was difficult, but the exchanges of expectations between your best bros were fun. Then came the day you were finally able to test your theories against the real thing. It was amusing to observe John and Rose slowly getting to grips with the Sburb as you anxiously waited your turn… despite the horrific meteor showers occurring across the globe, though never for one second thought did you have any cause to believe they would hit one of you in your optimism.

The concepts of alchemy and sprites with the combinations of reality and gaming were entrancing. You and Jade witnessed the complex absurdity of the game from Rose's split screen over Pesterchum. John completed the tasks set from his own home just before the countdown hit zero and you all cheered because none of you knew any better. How could you have known that your best bro had just escaped death by the skin of his teeth?

But then John had vanished from your plain of reality and things were starting to appear ever so slightly sinister, not so much as Lil Cal though, just a little nagging feeling from the depths of your heart, an echo of a clock ticking away to a distorted time zone.

You carried on playing regardless, the game was going to be fun and this was merely a part of it.

Egbert senior was murdered on April 13th before his own son's eyes, torn into a 3D jigsaw of limbs by ruthless teeth accompanied by sharp claws. John shrank at the enormity of his task; too much for him to process. None of you had really been expecting the dark nature of the game and so his death came as a shock to you all. Drove it home that this wasn't something to laugh at and play with as the genre 'game' insinuates. It didn't take long for your team to piece together that the four of you _had_ to enter the game, there was no going back. It didn't take much longer for your team to start falling apart under the pressure either. John needed to grieve and there wasn't time. You wish you had have been able to give him the time but God Tiers were unreachable fairytales to the lot of you.

After much persuasion, John helped Rose enter the game, but was swarmed by enemies too many and too soon after. To be honest, you don't think he wasn't giving it his all anyway.

You heard everything from Rose's vidcall and felt useless as your best bro lost his first life.

Jade promised you that he would be ok on Prospit's moon but John didn't wake in time to escape the meteor, you now know why;

Jade had died before she could save John in that session. She never even entered the medium. Jade Harley abandoned 2009 Earth as you knew it when the meteor struck her island, mere seconds before her stationary body appeared in the medium. Her second life on Prospit's moon was wasted on a stupid accident involving a long flight of stairs during a glitch in the game, or perhaps it was the game's way of trying to destroy your pathetic team forever?

Fast forward: Soon it was just Rose and you; Derse dreamers back to back in an effort of revenge. She had been doing her best to collect information so understandably the Seer learned of the God Tiers, without seeing that shortly the Black Queen would come for her in retaliation for her violent destruction of Derse; you reckon it had been Rose's own silent way of releasing her pain. You were there when the emotionless Queen raised her black gun and fired the tiny bullet at your ecto-bio-sister's defenceless back; you watched her fall to the floor, eyes wide and mouth slightly parted in surprise, for you it was all in cliché slow motion glory. This was the first time you really saw death in all its morbidity; crimson life flooding from the puncture wounds of a lifeless corpse.

You fled because you couldn't handle it the pressure of continuing. It was just you left. What was the point of winning this game of death if you were the only one left alive; you'd had enough.

You decided the end would come with a sword which you retrieved from your captchalogue as you settled on the huge stone slab, tears slipping from your face and you let them fall, there was no-one left to pretend to and you had lost your shades when John died anyway, the spare emergency pair buried in your inventory.

You were emotionally ready but instinct held you back, as it had robbed you of motion when you heard John's dying screams over Pesterchum. This time is different though and the sword easily cuts through your skin. You remember your surprise upon awaking in a new garb of red, and all you can of think is…

… Red for the life of those left behind.

So you return to Derse in your pyjamas and skim through Rose's collection and revise more about the God Tiers than you had cared to previously. Searching on and on because you aren't allowed to die, and maybe there is a reason. You carry on because you don't think you can go through with the shame of suicide again just yet. You carry on because the game could have just let you die.

Why not?

And you come across information about your tier in one of the many books located under Rose's bed, in the room she used to pass hours writing FAQs on Derse… but thinking of the past is irrelevant now, you have been gifted with the ability to rewind time.

You could go back and warn John's Dad, ensure that Jade enters Sburb this time, save Rose from her destruction at the hands of the Black Queen.

You can do it. This is the reason why you were saved. You are the one who can bring them back from the endless abyss until you win this game, all of you, whatever it takes. You're going to make it so you all get through this. There will be a happy ending. As long as you survive, you can fix the mistakes made by your team mates.

It takes weeks to master the threads of time but weeks mean nothing to you who can live in an infinite moment, untouchable as the world around you is paused in motion, black imps mid stride glaring at the last spot they had sighted you before you paused the game. You enhance your sword skills to defend yourself, because lets face it, if _you_ die, there will be no going back. You perfect your image as the knight until you are nigh unstoppable.

In the seconds before your rewind where you will ensure that your future plays out accordingly, you have a single thought-

You wish that your best bro had been here to watch and grow with you.

Rewind: …


End file.
